massagioconda.it
The epic of coral
A geographical and historical journey to the roots of the “red gold” between myth and science.
English edition
In fifty years of business, demanding challenges have been coming up one after the other; we faced the ups and downs of an unstable market, which was prone to the dramatic variations and fluctuations at certain moments in history.
Nonetheless, like sailors engulfed by a stormy sea, that even facing the most fearsome of the waves do not tremble or lose hope, our visceral bond with coral grew even stronger in the darkest times.
For this very reason, our mission is to convey the effort, the sweat, the passion and the priceless life experiences that forged every single coral shape that came by in our hands.
But coral has not only marked the history of our family and our land: like roots of a century-old oak, since the dawn of time it has also crossed places and lifepaths of men and women from different countries.
This brief booklet was born to narrate this marvelous journey across the coral trade route in a simple and yet refined style, and to depict it as a symbol of community, brotherhood and tolerance for diversity, as a lucky charm against the threats of a wide and dangerous world, a small boat taking the sea that docks at the roots of our family.
What we hope will remain etched in the collective memory of future generations is not so much our commercial achievements, or the fairs we attended, but the ability to join in a collective effort to safeguard a material that we hope will continue to fascinate and protect future generations for many centuries to come.
history and paths of coral pt 2
retracing history romans / etymology merchants / tree of the sea from caucasus to china tibet and the earthly world ebisu and daikoku bridges epilogue
credits / contacts
Born from the calcareous secretions of little squids that grow next to each other, coral, in its own essence, embodies the very concept of community
Another community laboriously works, mirrored by seawater: that of the sailors in the city of Torre del Greco.
Ceaselessly spinning the great wooden crux called Croce di Sant’Andrea or Ingegno, they lend an ear to their captain’s voice, the one that guided them toward those precious colonies that shaped extraordinary architectures on the seabed.
Those corals, extending their branches toward the surface, were just waiting to meet the expert hands of wise craftsmen.
Coral has crossed centuries and places. We love saying that it started its journey from Torre del Greco and landed in Asia, but actually coral is like man: it inhabits the same world, but splits itself into different populations.
On the sea bed of Mediterranean Sea – between fifty and two hundred meters depth – grows our coral:
Corallium rubrum. In the depths of the Pacific Ocean – marked by an unmistakable white grain – another coral lives: Pacific Coral.
The latter, divided into elatius, secundum and japonicum , is characterized by colors recalling the East: from the pesky pink of Momo to the white of Midway, with the intense and deep red of Aka in the middle.
Perhaps because it is underpinned by this strong sense of community, Corallium rubrum is not to be considered an endangered species. A lot of colonies keep growing, scattered throughout the Mediterranean.
Just like human beings, these organisms are constantly driven to reproduce themselves by a strong sense of attachment to life.
However, to preserve the Mediterranean coral from the excessive greed that sometimes subdues a man’s soul, its fishing has been regulated by strict and specific norms that – at both European and regional level –prevent the marine ecosystem from being permanently damaged by intensive fishing activities or the use of aggressive gear.
Coral fishing has been regulated by strict regulations in the Pacific too.
While the tradition of coral fishing has very old origins, going back to the nineteenth century, it is also true that everything is subject to a process of evolution, and even the oldest traditions must embrace the change to survive.
Thus, that delicate task once entrusted to simple nets is now carried out by underseas ships equipped with long mechanical grippers. Furthermore, Pacific coral is in included in the CITES regulations, in order to internationally regulate its trade.
Among the many fruits the sea produces, a special place is reserved to seashells.
With their almost geometrical evolutions, they are particularly suitable to host the shapes that the engraver will create in their cavities.
The canvases, provided by nature, on which he will work are essentially two: the delicate Carnelian shell , characterized by a reddish-orange background and a cream-colored surface; and the fiery Sardonyx shell, whose peculiarity lies in the almost Caravaggesque contrast between the dark brown inner layer and the cream-colored, almost white, surface.
scent of the
As it is possible to produce cameos with seashells, so it is with coral too.
Undoubtedly, in that case the result will be slightly different, and, maybe, bringing it to your ear will not give the impression of hearing – as the legend tells – the noise of the sea;
the scent, however… that will be the same.
Just as it is impossible for us to value the future without remembering the past, so it is for coral.
Indeed, retracing its history is the only way to truly appreciate the worth of this material, originated by the same sea it sailed to dock at the shores of faraway lands.
To understand to what extent coral spread its roots from west to east we only have to remember what Pliny the Elder wrote in his Naturalis Historia: according to him, Mediterranean Coral was used as a trade commodity with the East in exchange for spices, fragrances, pearls and gems already during the Roman Empire.
It was then with Marco Polo and other famous merchants of that time that coral route and silk route officially began to coincide. As Polo writes in Il Milione, interest toward coral – especially the refined one –spread fast during the Middle Ages, when the demand for coral began to grow steadily among Tibetans, Mongolians as well as Arabian populations. But let us proceed with order.
That Romans made history is a well-known fact; however, not many people know what an active role coral had played in that very history. It is indeed quite difficult to find any information about how this great people used to employ it.
According to many sources, Romans considered it a lucky charm, capable of healing diseases and protecting newborns, but, most importantly, an excellent trade commodity, particularly when it came to India .
Concerning the etymology of the word “coral”, we can once again rely on Pliny: according to him, among the various and oldest explanations of the origins of this word, it could stem from the Greek word κουρά (kourá) , literally meaning “cut”, with a reference to the iron tool used at that time to break its branches.
Whether it was more like the Ingegno or Croce di Sant’Andrea we could not know; what we can be positive about, however, is that the coral Romans used to fish, with its infinite ramifications, has docked at remote harbors in time and space.
Many centuries later, approximately around 1200, a great number of merchants from Europe travelled all the way to Central Asia. It goes without saying that, among the names like Matteo Ricci from Macerata; Marco, Enrico and Giovanni Vasio and Piero di Paschane, there is one that stands out the most: Marco Polo.
However, there is a common denominator that ties all this characters together: a nose for business that promptly made them sense the potential of this cold and yet warm material, thanks to its capability of merging with the cultures of the peoples that made it their own.
It was thanks to its malleability , to its ability to turn both into an exotic good and a local preciousness at the same time, that coral – especially the carved one – became the most requested material in China during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and in coeval Japan, where it found several fields of pplication, from pharmacopeia to jewel crafting.
In other words, coral has been able to turn its branches into roots that were able to penetrate the eastern lands as well as the western ones. Moreover, this idea is underpinned by an ancient Chinese popular belief according to which coral was a tree, called Teishu 鐵樹 , that grew in the depths of the sea; this tree was so special that it bloomed just once every hundred years.
Throughout its journey to the East, coral made another particularly important stop in Mongolia .
The greatness of this empire lied, indeed, in the set of laws that protected foreigners and merchants, and that – soaking the Mongolian culture with a spirit of deep tolerance – made the Mongolian empire one of the most suited to host that strong sense of community that is indeed embodied by coral.
Not without reason, from 1206 the Mongolian empire was so vast that it encompassed the territories of Russia, the Caucasus, Crimea, eastern Turkey, Iran, all of Central Asia, China, and Korea. In fact, had it not been for this very tolerance for diversity, it would have been impossible for coral to be the object of such commercial interchanges between the cities of Mediterranean Sea and Asia.
This may be the proof that opening one’s borders to the many travelers of the world represents a much greater enrichment than one might imagine.
Without this bent for hospitality, coral would never have acquired the relevance it had in Mongolia, where it was also closely connected to the local shamanic and religious culture.
To Mongolian people coral had the power to protect the person who wore it, especially if combined with turquoise, a symbol of air.
Coral accompanied Mongolian inhabitants in all the topical moments of transition such as birth, circumcision, puberty and marriage.
Furthermore, coral was considered so precious and imbued with a positive energy that even warriors who risked their life to protect the empire from invaders used to wear it.
Similarly to Mongolia, Tibet too has welcomed coral in its cultural and religious tradition. This bond was made particularly tight by Buddhist religion, according to which coral was one the five sacred stones that reminded human kind that life, being originated from earth, is eventually destined to return to it.
Additionally, jewelry was particularly meaningful to Tibetan Society, due to its extreme hierarchical structure. Because of that everyone, from public officials to the poorest Tibetan nomads, wore at least a single piece of jewelry that – more or less important according to the social status – featured some elements in coral which, in this culture as well as in others, was well renowned for its apotropaic functions.
In a sense, we can say that coral fulfilled a double role: on one hand it was a vehicle for differences, but on the other it joined people together, reminding everyone that power and wealth belonged exclusively to the earthly world.
To wrap up our journey along the footprints of “the red gold” (as many people would name coral), we will make a final stop in Japan to address the role of coral in its culture.
After all, being an insular country, Japan could not but appreciate this fruit of the sea, that Japanese people still believe to be able to extend the life span of the bearers and to bring them luck.
Because of that, Japanese grandparents still use to give coral bracelets as gifts to their grandchildren (white ones to males and red or pink ones to females), to protect them from diseases and to bring them happiness and wealth.
In Japanese culture coral represents such a precious good that it is even considered a heavenly gift.
This is proven by the several Japanese prints portraying Ebisu and Daikoku while weighting money surrounded by treasures and vases overflowing with coral.
In this connection, the link to the values embodied by coral is even more outstanding if one thinks about the fact that Ebisu and Daikoku are respectively associated with daily supplies (and, particularly, with fishing) and family , and they point out a form of wealth based on the ideas of sharing and frugality.
Thus, the journey we started on the coral way comes to an end, after taking us to far away lands just to teach us that coral, eventually, is capable of closing gaps and building connections.
Those very bonds point out to us, human beings, the true meaning of words like "loyalty" , "brotherhood" and "community".
Coral, for more than eighty years and three generations, has been our family’s raison d'être. Starting from our childhood experiences with my brothers and my father, Marino, to the trips abroad to attend the most important trade fairs, this fruit of the sea has been to us a vital lymph. Every coral we have chosen for its quality, always caring for nature and the concept of sustainability, has been a precious resource.
Today, we have a dream: to gather what we have learnt about this invaluable material and to share it with our dearest friends and clients.
Giuseppe Marotta
2024 - Massa Gioconda di Giuseppe Marotta e F.lli sas
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Texts prepared on behalf of Massa Gioconda di Giuseppe Marotta e F.lli sas by Rossana De Angelis , with contributions from Giuseppe Marotta, Irene Donati, Marco De Ninno
Graphic design and illustrations on behalf of Massa Gioconda di Giuseppe Marotta e F.lli sas by Carmine Di Matola.
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